Systems and methods for flexible sensors for electronic athletic performance data

ABSTRACT

A light weight flexible sensor system having flexible packaging and rounded edges, and analytics package that delivers a professional athlete&#39;s routine, drill, and/or move to an end user. The sensor system includes a network of physical devices embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity to enable the sensors to connect and exchange data.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a non-provisional of, and claims the benefit of,U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/592,337, filed Nov. 29, 2017,and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/592,357, filed Nov. 29,2017, which applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety for all purposes.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to electronic sensors and morespecifically, but not exclusively, to flexible sensors for combatsports.

BACKGROUND

A fan watching a sporting event often cannot fully appreciate theperformance of their favorite professional athlete. For example, acombat sports fan often wonders how hard a fighter is actually punching.In order to obtain sensor data for subsequent analytics or contentproduction, motion data from the hands of the fighters in combat sports,such as boxing or mixed martial arts need to be collected. However,conventional sensors used in striking sports have rigid packages, sharpcorners, and are large, thick and heavy. All of these properties areundesirable, and compromise the suitability of a sensor to anapplication in striking sports. For example, these conventional sensorscan injure the fighters.

In view of the foregoing, a need exists for an improved sensor systemand method for measuring electronic data capturing the performanceprofile of professional athletes in an effort to overcome theaforementioned obstacles and deficiencies of conventional athleticsensor systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a performance managementsystem for use with a flexible sensor assembly;

FIG. 2 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of the performancemanagement system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a circuit board andbattery system for use with the flexible sensor assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a flexible stress reliefsystem for packaging the circuit board and battery system of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a protection system forpackaging the flexible stress relief system of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of stress on the protectionsystem of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a combat glove system foruse with the flexible sensor system;

FIG. 8 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of the flexible sensorsystem; and

FIG. 9 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of the performancemanagement system of FIG. 1 that includes a cloud service for processingthe data received from the flexible sensor assembly of FIG. 1.

It should be noted that the figures are not drawn to scale and thatelements of similar structures or functions are generally represented bylike reference numerals for illustrative purposes throughout thefigures. It also should be noted that the figures are only intended tofacilitate the description of the preferred embodiments. The figures donot illustrate every aspect of the described embodiments and do notlimit the scope of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Since currently-available sensor systems are deficient because they failto provide safety to athletes when measuring an athletic performance, aflexible sensor system that enables actions of the fighters to becollected for generating content can prove desirable and provide a basisfor a wide range of applications, such as the ability to improve theirsuitability to applications in striking sports and for subsequentanalytics and/or content production. This result can be achieved,according to one embodiment disclosed herein, by a performancemanagement system 100.

Turning to FIG. 1, the performance management system 100 includes asensor system 110. In some embodiments, the sensor system 110 hasflexible packaging, rounded edges, and is small, thin, and light weight.The sensor system 110 can run for an extended period of time (e.g.,several hours) on a single battery charge.

The sensors included into the flexible sensor system 110 can include,but are not limited to, one or more low-g accelerometers, high-gaccelerometers, gyroscopes, biometric sensors, and magnetometers.

In a preferred embodiment, the sensors can communicate with a centralserver 120 using interfaces to a wireless communications networkintegrated into the flexible sensor system and include, but are notlimited to, one or more of Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth 5sensor systems. By way of example, the flexible sensor system cancommunicate with the central server 120 from a venue 130. Exemplaryvenues 130 include, but are not limited to, sporting arenas, combatcages, athletic stadiums, warehouses, and so on.

The wireless communication networks also can include any category ofconventional wireless communications, for example, radio, WirelessFidelity (Wi-Fi), cellular, satellite, and broadcasting. Exemplarysuitable wireless communication technologies include, but are notlimited to, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), GeneralPacket Radio Service (GPRS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA),Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA), CDMA2000, IMT Single Carrier, Enhanced DataRates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced,Time-Division LTE (TD-LTE), High Performance Radio Local Area Network(HiperLAN), High Performance Radio Wide Area Network (HiperWAN), HighPerformance Radio Metropolitan Area Network (HiperMAN), Local MultipointDistribution Service (LMDS), Worldwide Interoperability for MicrowaveAccess (WiMAX), ZigBee, Bluetooth, Flash Orthogonal Frequency-DivisionMultiplexing (Flash-OFDM), High Capacity Spatial Division MultipleAccess (HC-SDMA), iBurst, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS), UMTS Time-Division Duplexing (UMTS-TDD), Evolved High SpeedPacket Access (HSPA+), Time Division Synchronous Code Division MultipleAccess (TD-SCDMA), Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), Digital EnhancedCordless Telecommunications (DECT) and others.

With reference to FIG. 2, another exemplary embodiment of theperformance management system 100 is shown in further detail. Asillustrated, the flexible sensor 110 can include a glove sensor thatestablishes a near-field communication, such as a Bluetoothcommunication, with a near-field communication dongle 111 (e.g., a patchantenna or a Bluetooth dongle). In a preferred embodiment, the flexiblesensor 110 will only establish the near-field communication with thecommunication dongle 111 that has been established as a preprogrammedand whitelisted endpoint.

The communication dongle 111 communicates via wired and/or wirelesscommunication with a gateway 112, such as a Bluetooth gateway shown inFIG. 2. In a preferred embodiment, the communication dongle 111 isdirectly coupled to the gateway 112 via wired communication, such asusing a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable. A data portion (not shown) ofthe data transmission from the flexible sensor 110 to a network switch113 can be encoded for additional security. By way of example, anysymmetric key, private key, or public key encryption can be used toencode the data portion of the data transmission from the flexiblesensor 110. In some embodiments, the network switch 113 is coupled tothe gateway 112 using an Ethernet cable. The data transmitted from theflexible sensor 110 can include a sensor identification (ID).Additionally and/or alternatively, the data can include an athlete nameor other metadata (e.g., athlete birthday, athlete height, athlete age,a timestamp, venue, a fight identifier, a round number, temperature,humidity, and so on) for local data collection.

As also shown in FIG. 2, the data from the venue 130 can be provided tothe central server 120 via a network interface 121, such as over a wiredor wireless network. In a preferred embodiment, a wireless network suchas a fiber optic network is used. The network interface 121 communicateswith a local data collection 122, such as using an Ethernet cable. Inalternative embodiments, the local data collection 122 communicates withthe network switch wirelessly, using any wireless network describedherein.

The flexible sensor system 110 can include any number of subcomponents,such as shown in FIGS. 3-7. Turning to FIG. 3, the flexible sensorsystem 110 can include a sensor circuit board 430 (shown in FIGS. 4-5)and battery assembly 310. The flexible sensor system 110 advantageouslycombines the circuit board 430 and the battery 310.

With reference to FIG. 4, the sensor circuit board 430 and batteryassembly can be connected by a flexible metallic conductor 410. Themetallic conductor 410 can be fabricated with meanders, for increasedflexibility and decreased stress. This is advantageous for increasinglifetime under severe mechanical stresses. As an additional advantage,meanders achieve both flexibility and elasticity during use, in theevent that the substrate is strained. In some embodiments, otherflexible fabric substrates can be used.

In a preferred embodiment, during the fabrication process, each of thesensor circuit board 430 and battery assembly 310 is attached to aflexible fiberglass substrate 420, such as shown in FIG. 4. This allowsbending in the plane of the substrate, while eliminating any compliancewithin this plane. By eliminating compliance, stretching of thesubstrate is prevented, which eliminates excessive tension on themetallic conductors. As can be seen in FIG. 4, the flexible fiberglasssubstrate 420 is added as a mechanical stress relief layer. Althoughshown and described as a flexible substrate comprising fiberglass, anynon-elastic substrate can be used.

Conventionally, integration of a circuit board, flexible metallicconductors, and a battery can expose the metallic conductors to failureduring prolonged mechanical stress.

The flexible sensor package discussed herein advantageously combines thecircuit board 430, the flexible metallic conductor 410 (e.g., metallicribbon conductors), and battery 310 directly into a flexible enclosure.To prevent mechanical failure due to the stresses imposed during use,the flexible fiberglass substrate 420 can be introduced beneath allthree components, preventing the stretching of the assembly in its planeof assembly.

In a preferred embodiment, the entire assembly shown in FIG. 4 can bepackaged into a flexible silicone rubber enclosure 510, such as shown inFIG. 5. Turning to FIG. 5, a silicon rubber enclosure 510 can be seen.In a preferred embodiment, the flexible silicone rubber enclosure 510 isform fitted to enclose the flexible fiberglass substrate 420, theflexible metallic conductor 410 with the circuit board 430, and thebattery assembly 310.

The entire assembly is flexible and can be free of harmful mechanicalstresses, as shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 illustrates the packaged assemblyundergoing substantial and sufficient flexibility for use in combatathletics. As shown, the packaged assembly can flex in a longitudinalaxis of the package, for example, when an external load is appliedperpendicularly to the longitudinal axis (e.g., when a combat glovemakes contact with another athlete).

In an exemplary embodiment, the sensor packaging includes a flexibleenclosure having a maximum physical dimension of 60×25×5 mm, a maximumweight 9 g, a minimum operating shock threshold 200 g's (1,960 m/s2), along battery life, and an uninterrupted Bluetooth network communication.

Turning to FIG. 7, exemplary fighting gloves 700, such as used by theUltimate Fighting Championship (UFC) organization, are shown. Asillustrated, the gloves 700 can include a strap 701 that cinches aroundthe fighter's wrist.

The packaged sensor can be installed onto the glove, beneath the cinchstrap 701, such as shown in FIG. 8. Alternatively, the packages sensorcan be inserted into a pouch (not shown) sewn into the glove 700.

Additionally and/or alternatively, the data from the local datacollection 122 can communicate via wired and/or wireless communicationwith a cloud service 900, such as provided by Amazon Web Services.Turning to FIG. 9, the cloud service 900 can host an analytics platform910 that provides content to one or more client devices 950 through acontent and user platform 920. The cloud service 900 advantageouslyprovides network isolation, security, and encryption of the receivedsensor data.

The described embodiments are susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, and specific examples thereof have been shown by wayof example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It shouldbe understood, however, that the described embodiments are not to belimited to the particular forms or methods disclosed, but to thecontrary, the present disclosure is to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives.

What is claimed is:
 1. A performance management system for use withathletic equipment, comprising: a flexible sensor assembly; and aflexible non-elastic substrate for receiving the flexible sensorassembly within the athletic equipment.
 2. The performance managementsystem of claim 1, wherein the flexible sensor assembly comprises asensor circuit board and a battery assembly.
 3. The performancemanagement system of claim 2, further comprising a flexible metallicconductor that couples the sensor circuit board and the batteryassembly.
 4. The performance management system of claim 3, wherein theflexible metallic conductor is fabricated with meanders.
 5. Theperformance management system of claim 1, wherein the flexiblenon-elastic substrate enables the flexible sensor assembly to flex in alongitudinal axis of the flexible non-elastic substrate when an externalload is applied perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis.
 6. Theperformance management system of claim 1, further comprising a flexiblesilicon rubber enclosure for housing both the flexible sensor assemblyand the flexible non-elastic substrate.
 7. The performance managementsystem of claim 1, wherein the flexible sensor assembly communicates vianear-field communication with a network switch.
 8. The performancemanagement system of claim 1, wherein the flexible sensor assemblyincludes at least one of a low-g accelerometer, a high-g accelerometer,a gyroscope, a biometric sensor, and a magnetometer.
 9. The performancemanagement system of claim 1, wherein the athletic equipment comprisescombat gloves.
 10. The performance management system of claim 1, furthercomprising a communication dongle in operable communication with theflexible sensor assembly.
 11. The performance management system of claim1, further comprising a central server for receiving data metrics fromthe flexible sensor assembly.
 12. A performance management system forobtaining electronic performance metrics of an athletic performance,comprising: a sporting venue; and a server comprising a local datacollection system in communication with the venue via a network switch,wherein the sporting venue enables communication between the server anda sensor system disposed in athletic equipment at the venue, the sensorsystem comprising: a flexible sensor assembly, a flexible non-elasticsubstrate for receiving the flexible sensor assembly within the athleticequipment.
 13. The performance management system of claim 12, whereinthe flexible sensor assembly comprises a sensor circuit board and abattery assembly.
 14. The performance management system of claim 13,further comprising a flexible metallic conductor that couples the sensorcircuit board and the battery assembly.
 15. The performance managementsystem of claim 14, wherein the flexible metallic conductor isfabricated with meanders.
 16. The performance management system of claim12, further comprising a flexible silicon rubber enclosure for housingboth the flexible sensor assembly and the flexible non-elasticsubstrate.
 17. The performance management system of claim 12, whereinthe flexible sensor assembly includes at least one of a low-gaccelerometer, a high-g accelerometer, a gyroscope, a biometric sensor,and a magnetometer.
 18. The performance management system of claim 12,wherein the athletic equipment comprises combat gloves.
 19. Theperformance management system of claim 12, further comprising acommunication dongle in operable communication with the flexible sensorassembly.
 20. The performance management system of claim 12, wherein thecentral server receives data metrics from the flexible sensor assemblyvia near-field communication.